ABSTRACT
James Paine was a successful architect who built up a large practice in London and the north of England, where he was responsible for designing several country houses in a modified Palladian style. The rapid progress of architecture in Great-Britain, within these last thirty years, is perhaps without example, in any age or country since the Romans. It is the peculiar felicity of artists, of every denomination, that the greatest and best of princes in the universe, is not only a consummate judge, but also an encourager of their several degrees of merit. Having made respectful mention of the great patrons of architecture, it becomes necessary to say something of those laborious and ingenious gentlemen, who have lately, by the pains and peril of travelling, and by the most industrious researches into the remains of antiquity, in distant countries, given to their own whatever they found, which they imagined might be useful or ornamental.
